Rosh Hashana: Expert offers tips, boot camp

Bill DaleyTribune Newspapers

Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year, begins at sundown Sept. 28. Those feeling challenged about how to usher in the year 5772 in proper style can look for help from Laura Frankel, executive chef of the Spertus Institute. While she'll be offering Rosh Hashana Boot Camp in September, here are three of her top holiday tips to consider now:

1. Keep entertaining simple, especially because the holiday begins this year on a Wednesday night. As Frankel notes, observant cooks will have to plan ahead for two nights of Rosh Hashana meals and the Shabbat dinner on Friday. “I like food that does double duty,” she said. “A caponata served hot Thursday night as a side dish can be a cold dish for Saturday afternoon or a Friday lunch.”

2. Mix up your menus to include hot and cold items. Mid-September weather can be fickle, either broiling hot or chilly. Having dishes at different temperatures covers the bases. “I don't feel a compulsion to serve matzo ball soup every holiday,” Frankel said. “I will serve a gazpacho and just worry about a hot entree. And make one thing room temp. Don't kill yourself.”

3. Take one ingredient and work it through succeeding menus in different ways. If you decide to do, say, a turkey, Frankel suggests roasting the legs and thighs for one meal, and thinly slicing, pounding and breading the breast as a schnitzel for another meal.

Need more hand-holding as Rosh Hashana nears? Spertus' Rosh Hashana Boot Camp on Sept. 13 will offer participants “tips, tricks and tastes of holiday foods from Frankel, one of the best-known authorities on Jewish cooking in the Chicago area."